23 October 2004

Cinekids Seminar in Amsterdam

Yesterday I participated in a seminar for children's documentary film-makers, hosted by Cinekid and the Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund. Jonathan Marks, who led the seminar, invited me because of Kids 2020.

Not only did I meet other directors and producers from other countries, but we got to see some of their most recent documentaries.

What I learned is that the content and subject matter of each documentary in each country is limited or expanded by the freedom of children to express themselves and explore boundaries. It seems that countries like The Netherlands and Denmark have much more freedom to make and show films for and about children that include subject matter not necessarily approved by parents or the distribution laws in other countries.

We covered a great deal of issues facing documentary film-makers today.